AskHistorians

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The Islamic influence of men like Averroes and Avicenna on medieval philosophy is widely hailed, but what effect did the scholastic philosophers of the west have on non-Christian academics and scholars of the period?	15
Creole Louisiana - Francophone, Catholic, and outside Common Law - is markedly distinct from the rest of the American South. How did the practice and norms of slavery differ here from neighboring states?	13
What do historians actually know about the Shia Imams? Multiple major historical figures who allegedly stayed in hiding all their lives, only known through intermediaries protecting their lives and location - does this present an insurmountable obstacle for historians to work with? Did they exist?	12
When did the indigenous Middle Eastern and North African Christians become a minority in their regions, and what determined the relative endurance of those communities? Were they already minority by the time of the crusades? A significant minority? Did Coptics last longer than Nestorians? Catholics?	12
How did the practice of Astrology differ in Medieval Europe compared to antiquity? Was it intellectually preserved and continued, like Philosophy and History, or did it stagnate, later to be revived? Did the Christian injunction against divination do much against the astrological tradition?	11
The 1788 US election garnered a paltry 1.8% voter participation rate - did this include only eligible voters? What was voter expectation like in the very early republic, and what would motivate an eligible voter to exercise his right or not?	10
Archaeologists have apparently held very contentious debates over the last several decades as to the nature and extent of ritual cannibalism in the Prehispanic American Southwest. How, and with what evidence has our understanding of cannibalism among the Ancestral Puebloans changed over time?	10
"Bell Pit Mines" are both ubiquitous in very early Europe (2500 BC) and notoriously prone to sudden collapse when working on them. Have archaeologists found anything interesting digging up collapsed Bell Pits? Neolithic flint miners, buried with all as it was at the moment of collapse?	10
What was the formal legal status of the Roman Empire in the medieval period, especially from the fall of the Western Emperors to the crowning of Charlemagne? Did all these early Germanic kings really justify their reigns with reference to an absent, eastern sovereign?	10
Shouldn't the allies pledge to protect Polish independence have obligated the allies to declare war on the Soviets as well as the Germans? Why was one of the invaders given a diplomatic pass?	10

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